Meera Baindur - From Stamp Paper to Brass Bells

The conference "Non-State Legal Practices in India" held at Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal. Dr Meera Baindur delivered her lecture on the legal practices in the temple of Golu Devata, Almora, Uttarakhand state.
Golu is called the supreme deity of justice by his believers. This deity is territorially placed in a juridical relation with his subjects, those who reside in the districts of Almora and Nainital and also his believers who are sometimes not resident in his juridical region. He is often considered to be the “supreme court above the Supreme Court [of the Republic of India].” While Golu is clearly seen as a divine being operating above and beyond the state legal system, yet it is in the presuppositions of his devotees that he is placed within the same state system of justice. This is clear from my on-going field work in Chitai, Almora. I found that a non-state legal practice of petitioning the divine is contemporaneous with the procedures of state legal practices. Practices such as petitions through stamp paper, a practice of summons (called maath) and also punitive justice, retribution and fines are to be found in Chitai. In case of Golu, a legal stamp paper (until recently, now they are e-stamped) is used to petition the deity and the post-case payment (in kind) of the petitioner is made through the donation of a bell.
Theoretically, it seems that three main principles of ethics and justice are in operation here - truth telling, confession and the idea of the feared curse. I posit that this system of justice is a self-regulating practice that intercedes on behalf of the wronged person through a visitation of calamity on the accused, particularly ill-health, in other words a curse. Confession of the accused happens through the form of a ritual called the Jagar or through the sacrifice of a goat. While in most cases the Jagar is a possession ritual where the deity communicates with the devotees and listens to their petitions, here in case of Golu it is particularly different. The petition is already given in writing. Therefore the Jagar for the Golu mostly is a healing ritual where the accused holds a story telling session and a performance, at the end of which he/she confesses and is forgiven. The ailing person who may be the accused or his/her kin is healed. Others may also seek healings and blessings during the ritual. If Golu helps a case in the state legal system to be resolved in his/her favour, the petitioner after gifting of the necessary bell may also hold a Jagar performance in thanks.
I posit that the layering of the relationship between the benevolent deity, his ability to punish wrong doers and interfere in the state legal system, and the stylised ritual practices of written petitions that are modern, complicates a singular understanding of this as a non-state legal practice. I would bring these findings in dialogue with Habermas’ conceptualisation of non-state practices. An added framework would be to examine the materiality of the practice and ritual efficacy of this system of belief and justice.
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